Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
The urgency of nuclear spill localization can be illustrated by the havoc caused by certain well-known wide scale nuclear disasters, such as Chernobyl, Kyshtym, Windscale, and Three Mile Island (so named based on their locations). For example, a meltdown at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine resulted in a cloud of radiation being released into the atmosphere. This radioactive fallout, carried by the wind, was found on sheep in The United Kingdom, clothing worn by people across Europe, and even in rainwater in the United States. Potential victims located near these “sources” may experience several times the maximum amount of gamma rays that nuclear workers are allowed to receive in an entire year.
Radioactive scrap found in junkyards is another potential source of nuclear contamination. For example, a scrapped radiography machine may contain several thousand pinhead pellets of cobolt-60. A break in the machine could lead to exposure of these pellets and the potential for the pellets to become pulverized, and mixed with the other metal scrap.
Exposure to these sources may lead to genetic damage and/or cancer. As a result, a need exists for autonomous first responder systems with capabilities to localize and contain nuclear spills in a variety of environments.